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Faith, Hope & Trick

Faith, Hope & Trick is the third episode of the third season. It's also the first appearance of Faith.

Written by: David GreenwaltDirected by: James A. ContnerOriginal Air Date: 10/13/98

Willow, Oz, Xander, and Cordy meet Buffy off school grounds for lunch. Willow tries to talk Buffy into going out with a guy named Scott Hope but Buffy is reluctant in general about dating. Meanwhile, a new vampire named Trick arrives in town along with another mysterious vampire.

The next day, Buffy and Joyce have a meeting with Snyder and he informs them that, despite how much he hates it, she's allowed back. Giles is working on a binding spell to make sure Acathla stays dormant (and that it could lead to maybe getting Angel back) and he asks Buffy about the details of what went down. Giles worries a bit about Willow getting into magic.

At the Bronze, Buffy notices a girl leaving with a vampire, so she and her friends go to find them. However, they witness the girl holding her own just fine. They discover that she's Faith, the vampire slayer called after Kendra's death. She beings hanging out with everyone and immediately tells them stories about slaying. The next day at school, they introduce Faith to Giles. Faith says that her Watcher went off to a retreat so she decided to check out Sunnydale.

Buffy invites Faith to dinner at home with Joyce, but she's not exactly happy about it. Willow and Xander show Faith around school and she even runs into and flirts with Scott. Even Joyce gets along with Faith, thinking her positive attitude is great. Joyce plants the idea in Buffy's head that maybe Faith can take over for her. Joyce, of course, is concerned about Buffy's safety.

Faith and Buffy patrol together and the animosity between them is blatant. It gets even worse after a fight with some vampires where Faith focuses on her own battle and almost lets Buffy get killed. Buffy tells Giles that one of the vampires mentioned the name Kakistos. Giles then tells her that Kakistos is an extremely old vampire. Buffy realizes that he and Faith seemed to have showed up to Sunnydale at the same time.

Scott approaches Buffy and attempts to give her a present--the same ring that Angel gave her. This obviously causes an emotional reaction from Buffy and Scott takes that as a rejection. Giles informs Buffy that he just found out that Faith's Watcher is actually dead. Buffy goes to Faith's motel room to confront her. After a bit of talking, Kakistos and a few other vampires show up and Faith and Buffy hightail it out of there. They end up at Kakisto's lair.

A fight ensues and the other vampires (including Trick) leave Kakistos to fight the two slayers. Faith pulls through and drives basically an entire wooden support pillar through his heart. Giles becomes Faith's temporary Watcher. Buffy tells Giles and Willow exactly what happened with Angel, including that his soul had been restored. When she leaves, though, Giles tells Willow that there is no spell.

Buffy finds Scott and agrees to go out with him. However, she has to do one thing first. She goes to the spot where she drove Angel through with a sword and places the ring he gave her on the floor as a goodbye. As Buffy leaves, the place goes dark and the ring vibrates. Suddenly, Angel's naked form falls to the floor.